I was to remember my first day at Freedom University for a long time. On arrival on campus, I expected to be met by some stale students (as was the practice in my secondary school) but every student around was new like myself. I asked the way to Grant Hall but not one could tell me. I asked a number of other questions about issues that bothered me, such as where and how to pay the fees, the way to the dining hall and so on but no help was forthcoming. So in the midst of so many people, I am all alone, I mused to myself. The prospect was not in the least cheerful and all the elation I had felt at gaining entry into a renowned university at sixteen been to disappear. Then so if propelled by an unknown benevolent force, I walked a little bit down the corridor in the direction of notice board at which some ten young men and women were peering. For want of something to do, I decided to stop and look at the notice board. Alas! I had opened on the key to all the riddles that had dribbled me since I set foot on campus that morning. On the board there was a big campus map in which I was able to locate Grant Hall and other places of interest, there were details of various activities lined up for the three days of orientation for freshmen and a comprehensive list of those offered admission into various courses. How blissful I felt to see the light of knowledge , having been wallowing in the darkness of ignorance. Even then I was not able to escape the thought that I could not be sure how much of the responsibility for the darkness was mine, the fact that something had not been done to draw attention to 5that apocalypse of the notice board had contributed clearly to my initial predicament. All that notwithstanding, I learnt from the incident an importance of reading notice boards and handbills if one is to be informed about places and events in the university.

To listen properly is hard job and probably one of the toughest skills in the art of communication. Good listening has nothing to do with proper functioning of one’s auditory organs, which is assumed to be inevitable. Good listening in the sense we are interested in is not a biological factor, but a psychological one. Your auditory orangs may be in perfect order, when actually you cannot use them creatively. Creative listening implies your being efficient in the art of concentration; in other words, you concentrate on what one is saying so as to make sure that you hear all that is said. At the same time you are concentrating to hear all that is being said, you are also thinking fast, digesting what is being said, allowing your mental faculties and your memory to accept that which you understand and to reject that which you do not understand, sorting out what you do not understand and storing them somewhere in your brain for future discussion and all at the same time rationalizing what you hear, accepting that which you find rational and rejecting that which you do not find rational.
After you must have listened creatively to what you have been told, then you can respond if the need arises. It is quite proper that you respond because the process of response enhances the art of communication. But your response ought to be only a necessary response; a response that will improve your understanding. This response should involve your mentioning some things you have been told but which do not understand, or politely questioning the rationality of some of the speaker’s argument. But your response must be constructive; must enhance the communicative worth. It should not be an unnecessary argument, or an opportunity for you to express dissatisfaction. The ability properly aids communication and understanding